Swirling Eternity
by Jhon's Pen Mode
Summary: "Heart- Under- Blade". That's what the word 'Shinobi' meant. That tragic meaning, now more than ever, had never been closer to the truth.
1. Hell's Course 1

**AN: **Happy Xmas! Welcome to this my first attend in the Narutoverse. Keep in mind that english is not my first language, and thus, spelling and grammar mistakes will show up. If you are interested as a BETA reader, please PM me.

**Warning:** This is an AU, with OOC and OC's.

Normal Speech: "Naruto"

Important or Emphasized Speech: **"Naruto"**

Thoughts: "_Then I will break that curse. If there's such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!"_

Jutsu Names: **"Summoning Jutsu!"**

Silenced Jutsu/Spell**: **_**"Summoning Jutsu!"**_

Bijū and Summon Speech: **Now then... Who do you want to kill...?**

Bijū and Summon Thoughts:_** I will enjoy it every minute.**_

**Note: **This chapter is unbetaed.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Stones at the sides of the road.**

* * *

Every tale has its beginnings. Some are humble and unexpected, others are epic and legendary. But most of them share something in common: they tend to begin before we notice, even as far as before we're born into this world. Contrary to popular belief, we are not the protagonist in our own stories, but only in the tales witnessed and recorded by others through time.

I never felt like the main character of anything. Maybe that's why I choose to become a shinobi; ninjas don't need to be remembered, their existence are dismissing shadows in the middle of the night. I don't belong to any clan, ninja or any other type, in one of the greatest Hidden Villages. I don't have special techniques or any sort of status. I'm... average.

My graduation year is exceptional, even a no-name like me can perceive as such. There is Uchiha Sasuke, surrounded by almost every girl in our class. His cold indifference and single minded concentration was both annoying and creepy most of the time. And yet, it wasn't in question that he was the best in our group year. Even if he was the last Uchiha, it did nothing to his ninja skills. No, that's not true. Being the last of his clan meant that he pretty much had raised himself, had taught himself, with the probable help of some clan scrolls, and thus, his status as the Rookie of the Year was on his shoulders and his alone.

There is also Inuzuka Kiba, the best taijutsu user that the academy had seen in years, only seconded by Hyuuga Hinata and Uchiha Sasuke himself. Aburame Shino, Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji... those to name a few. Even some born of civilians like Haruno Sakura were noteworthy. Clan Heirs, with clan training and clan techniques. Compare to them, what am I?

* * *

After the final text yesterday, we have a week before the team assignments. Last night was kind of weird. The alert system became red, then back to orange and then yellow and then green again. Something happened in the Hokage Tower, but me, being a newly graduate genin, wasn't part of it.

So, how I will use my free week, you may ask. It is simple, I will design my training schedule. After thinking about it long and hard, and my self-derogatory evaluation that I did while comparing with my classmates, I have realized that I'm useless. Aside the Basic Three, I didn't knew any other type of ninjutsu or genjutsu, and both my chakra reserves and control were average. Heck, my taijutsu was so much like the Academy's textbooks that it was pitiful at best.

I needed something else, something to give the edge or at least a lead to where I wanted to go. My destination was Konoha's Public Library. Now that I was a genin, my clearance had to mean something, and thus, new information could be at my disposal.

I knew that it wouldn't be too much, but something was better than anything.

It took me four hours of constant research to understand that my efforts had been wasted. The first thing is that, despite that I now could access another level in the Library, the information available to genin leveled ninjas wasn't too much.

They weren't scroll techniques for one, not even genjutsu ones, which were the easiest to find, according to some sempais that I have interrogated before. What I did find was an intensive amount of information in Chakra Control exercises. Yeah, the most boring aspect of being a ninja was the only one in my reach.

Sighing, I realized that the ton of scrolls about the subject looked pretty much new, like they haven't been in use for a long while. This deflated my determination a little bit.

* * *

Leaf Balancing was one of the first chakra control exercises taught in the Academy. It was a simple technique and it was oriented more to the control aspect than the building up of chakra reserves. Since the starting point of said exercise was putting a leaf in one's forehead, the main point of it was to have a feel of one's own chakra, to familiarize with it. This was nothing new to me, but what it was new was that many clans, specially the Hyuuga, took it to another level.

It was simple, what they did was to stuck a leaf on every tenketsu in the body. If I have to guess, it was to be aware of the chakra in every part of the body, virtually enabling us to have perfect control over our chakra. It wasn't too chakra extensive, which meant that I didn't need to worry about passing out in exhaustion. It was obvious that the mental focus would be a problem, but, if the scrolls in front of me are to be believed, this is show to the Hyuuga kids at the tender age of 9 and they usually master it between 2 to 4 days. Well, I'm a genin and have more training that those snobs, so I bet I could beat this in no time.

While I was getting out of the library, I thought that, for a second, I caught a flash of pink hair.

* * *

I was panting on the ground like I have been running in a marathon. This was ridiculous. I was in my second day training with the extended version of the Leaf Balancing exercise and I could only stuck 63 leaves at any given moment at the same time. I did notice that, as I added another leaf it became easier, but at this rate, I wasn't sure that I would be able to stuck the 512 leaves needed to cover the whole chakra system in the body.

There has to be some trict around it so those snobbish brats could perform this faster and better, but what? It was that much of a difference between me, a clanless orphan, and then?

* * *

It took me five complete days to finish the Leaf Balancing Extended Exercise. My pride received a hard blow, but there wasn´t too much I could do about. I had to admit, now I was aware of my chakra in a way I wasn't before. To put it in simple terms, it was like I could feel the flow of the blood in my body, but at a deeper level. Just to test it, I discovered that I could do the Basic Three easier now, like it cost less chakra to do then... a lot less chakra. I didn't have nothing to compare, but each time I did of them, specially the _bushin no jutsu,_ I could feel a strain on my body, if a little. Now, it wasn't even there. It was not that my chakra had increased, but that my control over it had improved a lot so I now use less, if the amount of smoke caused by burning chakra was anything to go by.

I wonder if I could eliminated the smoke altogether? It could be a good indicator that my chakra control was flawless. And I had heard somewhere that some ninjas could do some techniques sealess also. It was a good project for the future.

But today was my rest day. It wouldn't be to be burned out before starting to get mission since tomorrow, so I need to recover a little bit. That didn't mean that I should be lazing around, so I was back to the Library, my only source of comfort and entertainment lately. Somehow, I knew that after becoming active my time will be reduced drastically, so I will took this chance to write down all the ideas that I want to implement in my personal training.

It was when I had a considerable amount of scrolls that I noticed no other than Haruno Sakura totally engrossed in a scroll that laid open on her table. On a whim I walked to her, with the intention to start a conversation. To tell the truth, I almost never talk to her back in the academy since she, alongside Yamanaka Ino and pretty much the whole female population in our classroom, was fawning on Uchiha Sasuke. But at the moment, she looked really... normal... like me.

"Good morning, Haruno-san." What a great conversation starter... yeah, right.

It seems that whatever she was reading was highly interesting, because she straightened up way too fast, way to rigidly, like she hadn't sensed me approaching at all. Come on! I wasn't even trying to hide my presence at all!

YEP! "Go...good mor-ning, Mumei-san, right?"

So, she did recognize me. I'm not surprise, the memory of this girl is pretty much flawless. Maybe that big forehead of hers isn't just for show.

"Yeah, its me. If I may ask, can I sit with you? Sitting alone in this quiet library is kind of disheartening sometimes." That is a nice way to say _boring_.

"Sure. You have many scrolls on you, what are you researching?"

Taking a sit in front of her, I started to lay the scrolls on the table and pulled out my little notebook that I decided to carry with me that day. "Chakra Control. It seems that is the only thing that I can study here. And you?"

She just showed me the scroll, pointing at the title:

**A Guide into Chakra Theory**

I raised my eyebrows in wonder. I wasn't an expert by any means, but it did sounded complicated and really advanced.

"That's a heavy lecture." I commented for the sake of conversation.

"It is, but it is quite fascinating." And like that, she became engrossed on her reading like before.

I stared at her for a minute. I found it bizarre, but talking to her, having a normal conversation, seemed a tad too surreal if you overlap this calm Haruno Sakura with her usual fangirlism tendencies.

Shaking my head in wonder, I decided to start my resume in my notebook taking notes of the different exercise that I could do to increase both my control and my chakra pools.

* * *

Today was the day. Today I will start anew within a gennin cell and a Jounin-sensei. Today was the day that I could start serving my village as shinobi and to gain my place in society. I was so excited that I barely miss my call in the assignments.

"... Team Six: Mumei Rei," _"me? O yeah, Iruka-sensei had told us that from now on we would be divided in a three-man cell with a Jounin-sensei in charge." _"Hyuuga Hinata and Uzumaki Naruto." _"The ramen-boy? I thought that he had failed. How is he a graduate now? There is a rumour that he is in good terms with Hokage-sama... did his connection helped him to get promoted? He did failed the final text two times, and his _bushin_ technique was crappy at best. Then, how did he graduate? He is a good for nothing after all." _"Your Jounin- sensei will be Mitarashi Anko." _"Is it my imagination or Iruka-sensei gave us a worry look when he mentioned Mitarashi-sensei? Somehow, I feel that something is wrong with this situation."_

"Team Seven: Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and a student from another class named Sai will be part of your team. Your Jounin-sensei will be Hatake Kakashi."

"Team Eight: Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino and Kurama Yakumo, a kunoichi that had been home schooled and is now qualified to join active duty. Your Jounin-sensei will be Yuuhi Kurenai."

"Team Nine is still in active duty. Team Ten: Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Chouji. Your Jounin-sensei will be Sarutobi Asuma."

"Team Eleven..." and Iruka-sensei continued on with the assignments.

When he finished, he gave us an inspirational speech about the 'Will of Fire' that, while we have heard it thousands of times before, it had a new meaning for us know. One by one, the teams were being picked by their senseis. Iruka-sensei told us that our sensei send a message telling us that she would be waiting for us in Watanabe's Shop, a dango shop that I had visited a couple of times in the past.

Uzumaki Naruto was, for once in his life, quiet, talking, almost whispering, short sentences with our female teammate. When that happened? Now that I think about it, Naruto had been quiet the whole morning, a rare sight. Does it had to do with the fact that he had somehow graduate? Kiba had raised a valid point questioning his doubtful presence in the Academy after failing so bad, but Iruka-sensei had pointedly ignored him. And other thing; since when does the class clown is so close with the Hyuuga heiress? It is not a secret that the girl had a massive crush on the loud blond, well, is not a secret for anybody except Uzumaki Naruto, the object of her affections. As far as public knowledge goes, the ramen-boy had only show that kind of interest to Haruno Sakura, thought he had stopped after she had viciously tore him apart with a vicious tongue lashing one day after being fed off by his constant advances almost a year ago. I cannot blame her, since Naruto was pestering her almost every minute he could. Even a wise patient monk would have snapped under the same circumstances. Now, if said pinknette could notice that she was doing pretty much the same thing as the blond with Sasuke...

Now that I remember, at first somebody told me, Suzume-san I think, that, a couple of months before I was transferred to this class from another, both ramen-boy and the shy-princess were really close as friends until something happened. I hadn't paid enough attention at the time, but if I remember correctly, they had a fight of sorts, or something along those lines. Why, then, I have the impression that they behave as the best friends ever?

I never caught that they have been looking at me discreetly while something else occupied my mind, something that Iruka-sensei had said. "_If Team Nine was actually on duty them, what had happened with the other teams that needed to be replaced by us?"_

* * *

When we arrived, Hinata-san asked to one of the waitress where we could find Mitarashi Anko. It is curious to note that said waitress pale considerably before pointing into a random corner that had only one customer wolfing down dango like it was water.

When we got closer, something in me wanted to get out of here, like I was interrupting a lion from his meal. A side glance confirmed that the other two were feeling the same, if their cold sweat was anything to go by.

Mitarashi Anko had light brown, pupil-less eyes, and violet hair which was styled in a short, spiky, fanned-ponytail. She wore a tan overcoat with a purple in-seam, which had a pocket on both sides, and complete with a fitted mesh body suit that was stretching from her neck down to her thighs. She wore a dark orange mini-skirt, as well as her forehead protector, a small pendant that looks like a snake fang on a thick cord rather than a chain to prevent it from being easily torn off in combat, a wrist watch, and shin guards. She also was wearing a dark blue belt around her waist that connected to her skirt that has an appendage-like sash.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I almost got a nosebleed looking at her... curves.

"Are you my new genin team?" She asked before we could reach her table. We nodded. "Then, find me in the Training Ground 44 in 10 minutes sharp." And with that, she disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"TG 44?! That's at the other side of the village!" I exclaimed. We were at least 15 minutes away, and that if we run the whole way.

"Anno... Do yo-u know whe-re it is, Mumei-san?"

"Yeah, we need to hurry."

"What are we waiting for?! Let's go-ttebayo!"

"Wait a minute mister, who will pay for that?!" Asked the same waitress that received us in the restaurant while pointing at our backs, where we could see the table where our new sensei was. I counted at least 8 boxes of dango and I knew that sensei had taken with her other three. Behind the waitress, other waitresses were closing in, blocking our exit.

I cursed.

* * *

"What the heck is her problem?! Making us paid her absurd dango bill!" Complained Naruto.

We were running as fast as we could but I noticed that I was slightly behind. Not only that, we also were dodging people in the market and other road stands that were selling their goods. It wasn't easy, and Naruto even had to stop for a second and dodge a handcart full of fruit that I could swear wasn't in his path a second ago.

"Let's talk and more running... thought I agree with you."

Hinata was quite, slowly gaining an advantage over us. It was, then, when I noticed the blond prankster with a look of mischief on his face, looking at me with an unnerving grin.

"Hey Hinata-chan, lets make a bet. If I arrive before you, I will buy all the cinnamon rolls that you want, but If I win, you will buy me all the ramen that I want when we finish today."

"Oka-y, Naruto-kun. And Mumei-san, do you want to join us?"

I thout it for a second. I don't know about Naruto, but I knew that the Hinata was the fastest among the kunoichis in our class. "Okay, and if I win you will buy me dango."

"YATTA!"

And not a second later, both Hinata and Naruto speed up in an instant like they were jounins. For some reason, I felt that I had been pranked.

* * *

We were panting heavily while trying to regain our normal breathing. I didn't knew about the others, but I was sweating a lot. This was ridiculous, how bad in shape I was? True, I didn't focus too much on taijutsu in the Academy, but still...

"Twelve minutes and forty two seconds. I'm... not impressed." Said Mitarashi-sensei cheerfully while wolfing down what it looked like the remaining of her last box of dango.

"I don't care... I win-ttebayo!" said Naruto grinning like a fox. Wasn't he pating a second ago? Why he doesn't even look winded?

Mitarashi-sensei raised an eyebrow at his comment, but didn't said anything about it. "Okay, this is the part where I ask you to introduce yourselves, then I introduce myself telling you some random shit to make me look even more awesome than I'm, but we gonna skip that for now..."

"Etto... What do you mean, Mitarashi-sensei."

"Oh.. so the scary mouse can speak." Commented our _dear_ sensei at Hinata-san's inquiry. I was starting to dislike her.

"Hey, don't be mean to Hinata-chan. crazy lady!" It seems that Naruto wasn't far behind either. Though I would have choose other words to refer to our sensei...

"Shut up brat, I wasn't speaking to you!" Naruto was silenced by a kunai embedding itself in front of his feet. We not even saw from where it came from. "Now, I will not ask for your names, because I really don't care for you at the moment. If you want to become genin, and if you really want my recognition, you need to pass my little test." She was serious, even if she said the last part in a way too sweet and innocent voice.

"Eh, sensei? I don't know if you got the memo, but we are already genin." For some reason, the word _smartass _crossed my head while I was protesting.

"The Academy Test? HAH! That was just to weed out the ninja wannabes from the ones that really had potential. Those that really one to be in active duty has to pass the test that their jounin sensei gives them, and, frankly, almost 70% of the genin hopefuls fail."

"What?! That's not fair!" whined Naruto outrage. Me too, I was really mad, but wisely decided to stay quiet about it.

"Anno... sensei? What happens if we fail?"

"If you demonstrate some talent, you go back to the Academy for another year of remedial lessons. If not... well, you are taken out from the active roll altogether."

All of us paled at that. None of us wanted to go back to the Academy, but to stop being ninja, even before we have started...

"Well maggots, it seems that you are finally getting what kind of shit are you in. Welcome to _'Welcome to Hell's course: How to dirty your pants in fear' _by Anko-sama!"

* * *

**AN:**

Hiya, how was my first attend on a Naruto fanfic?! Yeah, the whole chapter was in a OC point of view, one of my own creation. Don't worry, I will try to keep OC's to a bare minimum.

As you may notice, I'm not too good with Hinata's stutter, so sorry if it is up to your standards, but I will do my best.

If anything, any updates will be each two weeks, since BBB is my top priority now. Please, if you can take a few minutes to leave your opinion in a review it will be the most apreciated.

Redya soon^^


	2. Hell's Course 2

**AN: **Happy New Year!

**Warning:** This is an AU, with OOC and OC's.

Normal Speech: "Naruto"

Important or Emphasized Speech: **"Naruto"**

Thoughts: "_Then I will break that curse. If there's such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up!"_

Jutsu Names: **"Summoning Jutsu!"**

Silenced Jutsu/Spell**: **_**"Summoning Jutsu!"**_

Bijū and Summon Speech: **Now then... Who do you want to kill...?**

Bijū and Summon Thoughts:_** I will enjoy it every minute.**_

**Note: **This chapter is unbetaed.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Undershade flowers**

* * *

I wondered if _we_ ever were going to catch a break. My hand was resting on the left side of my chest, while a sting of phantom pain made itself known through all that area before disappearing like it came. I was slowly recovering my normal breathing while I watched as the indignant looks in Naruto-kun's and Mumei-san's face were replaced by looks of determination. I mimicked their valour with the same look of stubbornness, even if I didn't feel so sure at the moment.

"_... Worthless..."_

Those words... Mitarashi Anko's new piece of news brought forward those words that I have tried to bury so deep within forgotten memories. But those words... they were like bad weed growing despite everything in the most beautiful of gardens.

"_... these... flowers... even far from the light they so desperately need... they become beautiful... "_

That conversation, I cannot remember it completely, but I know that it is important, at least to me. If we fail this test, whatever it was, we could be thrown back for another year into the Academy in the best of cases, and stripped out of our ninja status in the worst of cases. I wonder what...Hiashi would say if I failed so spectacularly that I would never be a ninja.

The shivering caused by the idea became another flash of phantom pain in my chest.

"What we have to do, Mitarashi-sensei?" I asked. Whatever it was, we would not fail. Naruto-kun was with me.

"Oh, rebellious, aren't we? Don't worry. it will be quite simple." She smirked in twisted way that made us gulp with uneasy. Bringing out an stick out of nowhere, the purple haired jounin drew a line in front of us before walking away slowly. She stopped at a far distance from us. "We are 20 steps a par now. Your test is simple, all of you just need to walk where I'm without getting stray."

That was simple. It was way too simple, and that meant that something was terribly wrong with the situation.

"Ok, I'll bite. What's the catch?" Asked Mumei-san as suspiciously as I felt.

"Well, I may throw you some pointy objects randomly."

A dodge test? Well, since this was a Jounin it could be dangerous, but it was still way to simple.

"Are you ready? Well, one my count. Three, two," I took a deep breath before reading myself. "one. GO!"

As one, we moved. Or we tried to. All of a sudden my body became way too heavy, my breath was fast an elaborated, and my body was trembling. Naruto-kun and Mumei-san were in the same shape, though I noticed that Naruto-kun was on his two feet trying to take the next step while me and Mumei were bent over ourselves.

"Oh yeah, that may had happened too." Said Mitarashi Anko while playing with a kunai throwing it up and down like it was a ball. "Don't tell me that you don't know what is happening to you! What the heck did you learn in the Academy?!"

Was it a genjutsu? No, it was too raw, too...

"Killer Intent!" Said Mumei-san with a gasp while trying to control his breathing.

"A dango for the smartass. Indeed, this is KI. You see, sooner rather than later you will face enemies much more stronger than you, and KI is actually one of the most used ways to deal with cannon fodder like you three." And like that, the feeling intensified.

Naruto-kun bent over like we were a second ago, while mine and Mumei's knees gave up, making us kneel in the ground. This was bad, and utterly humiliating.

"And, by the way?, you have 45 minutes to succeed."

WHAT?! 45 minutes?! We cannot even stand straight, how are we going to walk over 20 steps in that time?!

"LIKE HELL I'LL THIS!" said the familiar voice of Naruto totally outraged. He, with difficulty, stood up. How was he doing it? How couldn't he feel the fangs of deadly monsters closing on his head? "WE WILL NOT FAIL THIS! I'M UZUMAKI NARUTO AND I WILL NOT GIVE UP!" And like that, my favorite blond did the impossible: he took a step forward. It was clumsy and shaky, but it was one nonetheless.

"_Why Naruto? Why are you so much of hope in you?"_ I was smiling.

That's right, we couldn't give up; I couldn't give up. We promised it, that were were going to reach our goal. And we were always to keep our promises.

With a titanic effort, I stood up before also giving my first step. I felt like my body was breaking under pressure, but I ignored it and did my second step. Naruto-kun was a couple of steps ahead of me, but I decided then and there to reach him and surpass him.

And so, I started to walk faster, thought I knew that we were slower than a normal civilian.

I don't know how much time passed. I did reached Naruto-kun and walked ahead of him but he soon reached me and passed until I reached him again, repeating the process a couple of times. We were like almost three quarters of the whole way when I heard the unmistakable sound of metal piercing flesh. Naruto-kun also noticed, because he flinched all of a sudden-

Turning back, I didn't noticed the look of surprise in Mitarashi-sensei's face, who was looking past us at our backs.

When I turned, I saw at our teammate a step or two after the beginning like. In his left shoulder, there was an embedded kunai, staining his brown robes with a thin trail of blood. He was sweating, and had one of his eyes closed. His breathing wasn't calm, like he had been working out for hours.

"He... caused himself pain just to escape from the KI effects?!" I said aloud, eyes widening in disbelief.

Naruto-kun looked at me for a second, with unreadable look on his eyes before another sentiment was in them: shame. Without a word, he stepped back to where Mumei-san was and, wordlessly, put his good arm around his shoulder, helping him walk faster.

I realized then what he was thinking. So wrapped in our little competition to finish this stupid test we were that we have forgotten our other teammate.

Following his example, I walked over them and swiftly bandaged his shoulder after taking out the kunai. Thanks Kami that it wasn't too deep, but first aid procedure still needed to be applied. Then, I took his remaining arm carefully, and placed it on my shoulder, and as one, we started to walked over again toward our waiting sensei.

Mumei-san was about to tell us something, but the KI intensified again, shutting our mouths and making it to us more difficult to walk, causing us to advance at a slower pace.

It was clear that, if me and Naruto-kun leave Mumei-san behind, we would be able to make it on time somehow, and it seemed that Mumei-san himself had realized this, if I understood correctly the look that he was giving us correctly.

But I refused to do so, and I knew that Naruto-kun wasn't even thinking about it; such ideas never have crossed his mind. Mumei-san finally understood that we weren't going anywhere so he gave up before giving us another look. No words were needed; we understood.

"_Thank you."_

"_You are welcome." _

Slowly, we regain terrain again, little by little, until we were a few steps short of our goal. The KI keeped up skyrocketing, slowing our movements so much that even breathing became a conscious effort. Mitarashi Anko... our sensei... only stood there, playing with her kunai, with a grin on her face that made her look like a snake ready to strike... I even could swear that her eyes were slitted, though that could have been a side effect of the monstrous KI that was rolling of her in waves.

"Tutu... times up brats! It seems that you don't have what it is necessary to be a shinobi of the leaf." She said, way to cheerfully as the same time that the nauseous feeling of the KI disappeared completely.

Suddenly, the world was a brighter place... and it feel so wrong.

"Don't screw with us sensei!" This time, with more emotion that I have ever hear in him, was the voice of Mumei Rei, our teammate, who spoke. "We passed the line, the _original_ line five steps ago!"

What?! When?! _"Byakugan!" _The bulges in my face around my eyes showed themselves to the word and I quickly noticed that, indeed, the goal line was behind us, covered in a simple genjutsu.

"But when did you... THE FIRST TIME YOU INCREASED THE KI!" I asked and answered myself, deducing where the switch had happened. Naruto-kun only stood there, glaring at our sneaky sensei like he wasn't finding her dishonesty amusing. I think that I was the only one to notice that he was the only one that didn't noticed the genjutsu.

"Indeed. I think that you are the first batch of genins that discovered that little trick of mine. Though, with a powerful dojutsu on your side, I was expected to get caught on the spot."

I actually blushed in embarrassment at that. Naruto growled in my defense, and Mumei. no, Rei-san, tensed a little bit.

"I have a question, why did you decided to turn back for your smarty-pants here? You would have passed this test a lot more sooner."

"Because we are a team." Naruto not even hesitated in his answer.

"Even if we complete the mission, leaving behind a comrade will transform it into failure." It was my answer.

Mitarashi Anko, with that intense glare of hers that reminded me of a snake ready to strike, stared at us for a moment. And then, she smiled... and for some reason, I felt truly scared.

"Congratulations, you passed."

"NANI!" We said in unison.

"Even if you hadn't figured out the line trick, or even if you hadn't reached me on time, when you came back for your comrade you passed this test in my mind. Many genin fail in this because they forgot the importance of teamwork and how much we value our nakama. From now on, Team Six is on duty!"

"Yatta!" screamed Naruto like a fool in happiness. I also chuckled; it was difficult to resists his enthusiasm.

"Yep! From now on you will be Whiskers-chan," pointing at Naruto, "Stalker-kun," pointing at me, "and Nameless-wonder."

We growled at our new despicable nicknames. _"I'M NOT AN STALKER!" _

"Mitarashi-sensei," "Anko-sensei or Anko-sama if you insist." "Anko-sensei, what would had happen if Hinata-san and Naruto- san would had not came back for me?"

"Aside of failing them then and there? I would have put them under a rain of metal!" How she could say such things to us, her students, in such a calm and cheerful way? "I hate traitors the most!" And, out of the blue, our dear friend the KI came back. "I will tell you here and now that, if you ever betray or think to betray Konoha in any way, shape or form, I will hunt you, I will find you and then, I will have fun with you (and you will wish to never had been born) before killing you. Understood?" She shifted from threatening demon to a cheerful innocent housewife in an instant.

"_This woman is utterly crazy!"_ I thought as I nodded alongside my new teammates.

"Well, now that that is out the way, I need to test you indifferent things to see how far are you so I can make a good training regimen. So, to start..."

And so we spent the next five hours in taijutsu matches, against each other and against sensei (individually and as a team). We were tested in chakra control as in the jutsu that we knew, and in our use of weaponry, and accuracy... and many other things,

When we were done, I barely could stand and Rei-san was in worse shape than me. Naruto was panting heavily (and knowing his almost unlimited stamina it was worrying) but otherwise find. Anko-sensei was a sadistic bastard and a ruthless teacher... but I could feel myself progressing a lot more than I had been doing in the last three months and. she hadn't even taught us something!

"Okay, lets call it for a day, is almost 6:30 in the afternoon. Tomorrow, we will meet here at 400 hours, understood?"

"HAI, ANKO-SENSEI!"

"And other thing. We will spend a couple of weeks reinforcing the basics before moving to a more specialized training. Said training depends in what roll our unit will fell. You had until them to think and decide what type of shinobi you want to be. Well, seeya..."

"Wait a minute sensei!"

"Yeah, Nameless-wonder?"

"Well, I wanted to invite you and Naruto-san and Hinata-san to my house for dinner. As a celebration of our success in becoming genin."

I was surprised at the invitation. And I could see that both Anko-sensei and Naruto-kun were even more surprised. And kind of understood Naruto-kun's reaction, given _his circumstances_, but Anko-sensei?

"Sure, why not?" Said our teacher like it was nothing important. Me and Naruto agreed afterwards. Giving us the direction of his house, he told us to be there in two hours sharp, before going to do the preparations.

After Anko-sensei disappeared to Kami-knows-where, me and Naruto-kun saw each other for a second before jumping apart.

Without a pause, an army of shadow clones appeared in a cloud of smoke before launching at me as I felt in a familiar Juuken stance, ignoring my fatigue and hunger.

"_This is how it is supposed to be."_

* * *

Two hours later, under the crescent moon, me and Naruto-kun were walking next to each other, reaching our teammate quarters. A small wood cottage at the edge of the residential area... or more like the slums, not too far from where Naruto-kun's appartment was.

The cottage was smaller than the dining room in the main Hyuuga Compounds, but I saw a small garden planted around the base of a three, the flowers dancing with the gentle breeze under the shade of the upper branches of the tree.

"Well, it doesn't look like much." Said a voice behind us, making us jump fast before we fell in an attacking position. "Good reaction by the way, but you would had been dead at least fifteen times before you had a chance to react."

"Sensei! Please, don't do that!" said Naruto indignantly.

"No promises, Whiskers-chan. Now, something smells good. Want to check it out?"

And indeed, a tempting aroma was calling us from within the cottage, compelling our noses to take control of our bodies and making us walk over the succulent source behind that wooden door.

Me and Naruto, covered in bruises and cuts and dirt, at the entrance of our teammate house, with our crazy, sadistic sensei behind us, enjoyed our first night as genins of Konoha.

* * *

**AN:**

An this is the birth of Team Six. I hope that you like this New Year present. I was cracking my head in how I would make Anko give a believable test for our heroes and stay true to her character and..voilá, the KI test was born. I think is original enough, at least I haven't read of if yet in any other fic.

Anko, we love you (or we should)!

This time, the point of view was Hinata's, for the sake of variety. I was thinking to keep doing this, each chapter with a different point of view, or do you want many POV in the same chapter for a more general idea of the world?

As you may noticed, the OC sucked badly in this chapter. That was intentional. I don't want this chapter to have overpowered OCs just for the sake of it. Everybody will have to work for their powers like any other person. The cast, especially the Rookie Nine, will be more powerful than their cannon versions, but their enemies will also be, so I think that there isn't too much to complain about.

Now, feel free to leave a review with your honest opinion in it. I can tell you that us, authors, gain our energies and strength to write when you, our dear readers, dedicate some of your time to review our work^^.

R&R


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